Getting ready for Bike to Work day, and the Feed

Two things today. First I’m hoping the garage door will open so I can get my bike out, and second the garage door will close so I can leave the house. There is too much junk under the track to be able to get to the manual garage door opener, so if the electric one quits working nothing gets in or out of the garage unless you can get to it from the door to the house. Of course the same situation would exist if there was a car instead of a big pile of Not My Stuff in the middle of the garage, but that’s not the point. The point is that I don’t know if I can get my bike out of the garage. Naturally this annoys me. What’s the point of having a bike if you can’t get to it to ride it? Like the show bike that is currently under a huge pile of Not My Stuff next to the other pile of Not My Stuff.

Up first today is an update on a CO hit-and-run. Hit-and-run driver who fatally injured cyclist pleads guilty The guilty plea? Great. The total lack of prison time? This makes it official, no matter who you are or what your social status, when you ride a bicycle in CO in the eyes of the law you are less than human. There is no nicer way to put it. After the Martin Erzinger case where a prominent doctor was permanently disabled by a drunk stockbroker the stockbroker (Erzinger) got away with no prison time and 45 days of community service. Despicable, what they do in CO. More Meyers: Plea deal in hit-and-run sends wrong message

Another link to the cyclist with a broken neck after an ID hit-and-run. Cops Search for Driver After Cyclist Injured in Hit-and-Run I wrote this yesterday and I reiterate the statement today, if you come in contact with a motor vehicle and it makes you come off the bike, seek medical attention. Do not get back on the bike and ride to work with a broken neck. Especially with a broken neck.

A MI sidewalk cyclist gets left-crossed. Bicyclist critically injured in pickup truck crash Monday identified as Timothy Stafford of Kalamazoo There seems to be some quality control problems with the victim’s BSO, notice the fork broke in the middle of the steer tube at a place that would be inside the head tube and protected from impact damage. As for the wreck itself when cyclists ride on the sidewalk it indicates the street does not feel safe to ride in, but drivers do not look for cyclists riding in the sidewalk. The cyclist in this case was crossing in the crosswalk legally, but the driver just didn’t see him in time to stop or change direction before the collision. So, intersection protocols to reduce the damages, and get the infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

BikePortland has an unfortunate update to a tragic wreck. Ryan Egge, injured in March bike-car crash in Cully, has died This was a wreck that did not make any sense to me when it was first reported, that the cyclist had ridden through a parking lot at a high rate of speed and into oncoming traffic and the side of a car. I reported at the time that I thought there was another vehicle involved that had not been recorded due to the fact that the victim was unconscious at the scene.

If your BAC% is more than 3 times the legal limit 3 hours after a wreck and you ask if you can drive home, you may have a drinking problem. Firefighter over 3x the limit hours after alleged drunken hit and run One test had the driver within 0.005% of 4 times the legal limit. Best quote from the trial:“Clarke said his wife thought he had a problem with booze.”

And those are all the links that gave me fits and giggles today. And just before I finished up today the electrician came to troubleshoot the problems we were having and the problem is an intermittent dropout on one leg of the 220 in side. The fact that it was not out when GP&L pinged our smart meter to test their side of the circuit tells me this is going to be a fun one to track down. We are also having some kind of breaker box problem but until the city can send us some stable power in it can’t be troubleshot. Whee!